1. Global Religious Traditions, with emphasis in Asian Philosophy/Religious Thought, Biblical Studies, and Islam; and 2. Religion and Society.

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1 Religion, Ph.D. 1 Religion, Ph.D. COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS ( About the Program The Temple University Department of Religion began shortly after the Supreme Court declared that the study of religion (not to be confused with its practice) in state-supported public education was commended. Temple's department broke from the "seminary model" of traditional fields, such as church history and theology, and instead committed to the multi-traditional and multi-disciplinary study of global religious traditions. This gives our program an outstanding breadth and cross-cultural diversity. We have a long history of attracting students from all over the world, and our graduates now work in universities not just in North America, but also in places such as Germany, Japan, Korea, and Malaysia. Time Limit for Degree Completion: 7 years Campus Location: Main, Center City Full-Time/Part-Time Status: Most graduate courses are offered during the day at the Main Campus, with an increasing number of courses offered at TUCC in the evening.the degree program can be completed on a full- or part-time basis. Interdisciplinary Study: Students are given a broad, interdisciplinary introduction to Religion in the first unit of study and take courses in other departments and institutions in the second unit of study. Affiliation(s): Graduate student exchange agreements exist with the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Religious Studies, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, the Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. In addition, a coordinated M.A./Ph.D. program in Islamic-Christian Relations is conducted with Hartford Theological Seminary and a Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies is offered in cooperation with Temple's Women's Studies Program. Areas of Specialization: The Department of Religion offers graduate programs leading to the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees. Students are introduced to the major methods of study in Religion, with stress on the critical analysis of religions by the methods of the humanities and the social sciences, including textual and historical analysis, philosophical and hermeneutical studies, and social and cultural analysis. The program thus ensures that a well-rounded course of study is achieved. The two basic concentrations are: 1. Global Religious Traditions, with emphasis in Asian Philosophy/Religious Thought, Biblical Studies, and Islam; and 2. Religion and Society. Job Prospects: The kind of education we offer has enabled our graduates to find jobs in a very competitive job market. For example, some of our graduates in the area of Bible study were hired explicitly because they had received some instruction in Islam and could serve as a resource about that tradition. Breadth and diversity constitute one of the strengths of our program, and we continue to offer coursework in global religious traditions and the roles of religions in society and culture so as to maintain this strength. Graduates of our doctoral program are employed in colleges and universities in North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. The most common positions are as faculty in religion studies, although some are administrators in educational governmental administrations and academic administrations. Non-Matriculated Student Policy: Persons not enrolled in a degree program may register for courses as non-matriculated students. Transcripts of undergraduate work should indicate some background in Religion Studies and a GPA sufficient to maintain graduate work, normally 3.5 or above. Nonmatriculated students may register for courses after an interview with the Director of Graduate Religion Studies, at which time they should present academic transcripts. Credit earned toward a subsequent degree program at Temple University is limited to 9 credits. Financing Opportunities: Teaching Assistants teach sections independently in the Department of Religion. Admission Requirements and Deadlines Application Deadline: Fall: January 15 Applications are evaluated together after the deadline. APPLY ONLINE to this graduate program. Letters of Reference: Number Required: 3 From Whom: Recommendations should be obtained from former faculty who know the applicant best. Coursework Required for Admission Consideration: It is suggested that applicants have taken at least 18 credits of Religion coursework.

2 2 Temple University Bulletin Master's Degree in Discipline/Related Discipline: A master's degree is not required. Bachelor's Degree in Discipline/Related Discipline: All applicants must present credentials that are the equivalent of the appropriate baccalaureate degree at Temple University. Statement of Goals: In 2 to 3 pages, address your background that prepares you for graduate studies in Religion, including your previous successes in academic study and research in the field; your area of interest within the field of Religion and how that interest coincides with offerings in Temple's Department of Religion; and your teaching and research goals and how you foresee study at Temple furthering those goals. Standardized Test Scores: GRE: Required. Scores of 160 (new test) or 600 (old test) on the verbal section and 144 (new test) or 500 (old test) on the quantitative section are preferred. TOEFL: 100 ibt or 600 PBT minimum Resume: Current resume required. Writing Sample: The writing sample should demonstrate your ability to research and write a scholarly paper. The paper should be no more than 10 pages in length and fully referenced according to a professional, scholarly style manual. It should be in the field of Religious Studies or a closely related area. Program Requirements General Program Requirements: Number of Credits Required Beyond the Master's: 30 Number of Credits Required Beyond the Baccalaureate: 60 Required Courses: Foundation Courses Basic Thought, Practices, and History of Three Particular Religious Traditions 12 Introductory Methodology 3 Advanced Seminars and/or Independent Study 33 Courses Taken Outside the Department 6 Dissertation Research REL 9999 Dissertation Research 6 Total Credit Hours 60 The Ph.D. program is divided into three sequential units of study: 1. Unit I encompasses the first 24 credits of courses, including all the required foundation courses, and satisfaction of a first foreign language requirement. These courses are intended to provide a firm and broad academic base across the field of Religious Studies. The foundation courses must include 12 credits of courses in the basic thought, practices, and history of three particular religious traditions and 3 credits in an introductory methodology course. The remaining 9 credits consist of advanced or specialized courses chosen by the student for the benefit of her/his program after consultation with the advisor. 2. Unit II includes the remaining courses and second language competency to complete the required specialization in preparation for the preliminary examinations and the dissertation proposal. These include 24 credits of further advanced or specialized courses and 6 credits taken outside of the department for a total of 30 credits. 3. Unit III entails the writing and defense of the dissertation. The student registers for 6 credits of dissertation research, usually one credit per term. Language Examination: Competence in all languages necessary to perform graduate-level scholarly research in the student's area of concentration must be demonstrated. Reading knowledge of a minimum of two foreign languages is required. Culminating Events: Preliminary Examination: The purpose of the preliminary examination is to demonstrate critical and interpretive knowledge in specialized areas of Religion. Students are examined in all areas of scholarship and research necessary for their area of study. They must have demonstrated reading knowledge of at least a second foreign language, the first having been examined in Unit I. They prepare a dissertation proposal and an outline of their areas of examinations. The preliminary examination is taken at the end of Unit II. Members of the student's dissertation committee individually write examination questions. Sometimes faculty are included as "examiners" who will not serve on the Dissertation Committee. Students arrange with their Dissertation Committee when the exams are to be taken. Normally exams are done

3 Religion, Ph.D. 3 within the Department of Religion, using a computer under supervised conditions. All examiners and members of the Dissertation Committee must agree that the student has demonstrated competence in the relevant areas of study, and that the student is capable of completing the dissertation proposed. The written exams serve as the basis for the oral preliminary examination. All faculty for whom exams were written participate in the oral preliminary exam. Dissertation Proposal: The proposal demonstrates the student's knowledge of the current research in the field on her/his particular problem of interest. Students should show methodological awareness and state the uniqueness of the proposed research with regard to the ongoing body of scholarly literature. Dissertation: The dissertation is to demonstrate original and significant contributions to the study of Religion. It should make use of primary texts and demonstrate reading knowledge of appropriate original languages. The Dissertation Examining Committee evaluates the student's dissertation and oral defense. This committee is comprised of the Doctoral Advisory Committee and at least one additional Graduate Faculty member from outside the Department of Religion. The Outside Examiner should be identified no later than the beginning of the term in which the student will defend the dissertation. The Dissertation Examining Committee evaluates the student's written thesis in making an original scholarly contribution to the field and her/his ability to defend and discuss orally the contents of the thesis. If a student needs to change a member of a Committee, the new member must be approved by the Department's Graduate Studies Committee and registered with the Graduate Secretary and the Graduate School. Students who are preparing to defend their dissertation should confirm a time and date with their Dissertation Examining Committee and register with the Graduate Secretary at least 30 days before the defense is to occur. The Graduate Secretary arranges the time, date, and room, and forwards to the student the appropriate forms. After the Graduate Secretary has arranged the time, date, and room for the defense, the student must send to the Graduate School a completed "Announcement of Dissertation Defense" form, found in TUportal under the Tools tab within University Forms, at least 10 days before the defense. The department posts flyers announcing the defense. Contacts Program Web Address: Department Information: Dept. of Religion Anderson Hall, 6th Floor 1114 Polett Walk Philadelphia, PA religiongradstudies@temple.edu Mailing Address for Application Materials: Dept. of Religion 615 Anderson Hall (022-28) 1114 Polett Walk Philadelphia, PA Department Contacts: Admissions: Linda Jenkins religiongradstudies@temple.edu Graduate Chairperson: Jeremy Schipper schipper@temple.edu Chairperson: Khalid Blankinship khalid.blankinship@temple.edu

4 4 Temple University Bulletin Courses REL Special Topics. 1 to 3 Credit Hour. REL Foundations in Philosophy of Religion. 3 Credit Hours. Considers a selection of classical and modern European and American philosophers and the implications of their views for religious thought. Some of those whose writings are considered may include Hume, Kant, Schleiermacher, Hegel, Kierkegaard, James, Whitehead, Rosenzweig, Gadamer, Ricoeur, Derrida, Irigaray, Habermas, and Foucault. Also may consider non-western philosophies of religion, for example, those deriving from India or Japan. REL Foundations in Religion and the Social Sciences. 3 Credit Hours. Introduces students to the discourse of Western social sciences on religion. Examines both modern and postmodern thinkers. Offers extensive readings in Durkheim, Marx and Weber. Then puts these modern theorists into conversation with postmodern critical theory as exemplified by Foucault and Bourdieu. REL Foundations in Textual and Historical Studies in Religion. 3 Credit Hours. Teaches the issues, methods, and trends emerging in the turbulent world of historical studies. Explores the problems, ideological constraints, and new venues that occur when "religion" is introduced to historical studies. Deals with New Historicism, Cultural Materialism, postcolonial theory, various feminisms, the crisis of narrative history, and various approaches now in vogue for reading ancient texts, 1st through 6th century CE and dealing with Greco-Roman religions, Judaism, and Christianity. REL Foundations in Religion and Psychology. 3 Credit Hours. Introduces psychological theorizing about the origins, motivations, and aims of religion. Psychological thought will be contextualized, showing how it has been shaped by and in turn reshapes more traditional Western reflection on the nature of persons, symbols, and faith. Simultaneously, psychological perspectives assist Western people to appreciate, interpret, and adapt non-western forms of religion and practices. In this course, we will read classic theorists, modern revisers, and some recent rethinking and responses to these theorists. REL Foundations in Religion, Race, and Ethnicity. 3 Credit Hours. Critically engages leading theoretical discussions about the intersection of religion, race, and ethnicity. Serves also as a practicum in relevant social science methodologies and their application in the analysis of a chosen "ethnic" congregation in the Philadelphia area. REL Foundations for the Critical Study of the Hebrew Bible. 3 Credit Hours. This seminar provides an introduction to the development and application of various critical methods employed in Hebrew Bible scholarship (sometimes called Old Testament scholarship). It will focus on methodological developments from the mid-nineteenth century CE through the present. Knowledge of Hebrew is not required.

5 Religion, Ph.D. 5 REL Foundations in Hinduism. 3 Credit Hours. Both a historical and thematic survey of Hinduism. Attempts to make clear the structures of Hinduism and to explain its internal coherence as well as its apparent inconsistencies. While recognizing that it is impossible to include everything in the study of a religion which covers a time span of 5,000 years and which has existed over a vast geographical area, this course aims at giving comprehensive coverage of the history, traditions, rituals and theologies of Hinduism. REL Foundations in Indian Buddhism. 3 Credit Hours. Examines the biographical data (not Buddhology) and philosophical themes in the Majjhima Nikaya and the Digha Nikaya. Studies philosophical themes in early Theravada traditions and selected suttas. REL Foundations in Chinese Religions. 3 Credit Hours. Basic studies of (1) the classical texts and essential teachings of early Confucianism and Taoism, and (2) the ideological continuity from early Confucianism and Taoism to Neo-Confucianism and Neo-Taoism. Focuses on the major religious and philosophical traditions of China. Special consideration is given to the ethical, religious, and social thought of Confucianism and Daoism. Topics of discussion include: 1) the pre-han concepts of spirits and gods, 2) classical Confucianism (the "Kung-Meng tradition"), 3) philosophical Daoism (the "Lao-Zhuang tradition"), 4) religious Daoism (including the popular cult of immortality), 5) ideological continuities and transformations in Neo-Confucianism and Neo-Daoism, and 6) religious practices in contemporary China. The approach is both historical and comparative. No knowledge of Chinese is required, as the readings are in translation. REL Foundations in Chinese Buddhism. 3 Credit Hours. The course will provide an overview of Chinese Buddhism from its beginning in ca. 200 CE to the modern era. We will read primary sources in translation supplemented by overview lectures on history and philosophy. We will look at Chinese Buddhist thought, as well as its art and architecture, social dynamics and relationship with other traditions. A special section on modern and contemporary Chinese Buddhism will emphasize Buddhist reactions to modernity. Participants will create an annotated bibliography, do at least one presentation, and write a term paper (20+ pages). REL Foundations in Japanese Buddhism. 3 Credit Hours. Prepares students to do an in-depth study of Japanese Buddhism, covering several major Buddhist thinkers, such as Kukai, Dogen, Shinran, Myoe, Hakuin, Takuan, and Nishida. In order to understand how Japanese Buddhism accepted Indian and Chinese Mahayana Buddhism, the course traces some of the prominent conceptual frameworks of these two. The methodological orientation of the course is philosophical. REL Foundations in Judaism. 3 Credit Hours. This course offers students a critical introduction to issues within Jewish studies and the study of Jews, Judaism and Jewishness. Who are Jews and how have these designations shifted and changed over time? What is Judaism and how is it a religion? What role do texts and practices play in defining Judaism? The course asks these and other questions in order to both build on the legacy of how Judaism has been studied within the academic field of religious studies and to challenge some of these long held assumptions. In other words, the course both appreciates and challenges this scholarly legacy by offering students Religious studies, Jewish studies and literary critical tools to better appreciate Jewish texts and practices. And, by looking at Jews, Judaism and Jewishness in the plural, the course offers students a broad historical vision of Jewish culture. The course is organized, more or less, chronologically offering students a critical overview of Jewish history moving from the biblical period to the present with attention to specific Jewish texts and artifacts from specific periods and geographical locations within this history.

6 6 Temple University Bulletin REL Foundations in Christianity. 3 Credit Hours. Focuses on both thought (doctrine, theology) and patterns of spiritual life, especially as revealed in Christian devotional "classics." What has been believed, taught and confessed by Christians since the Church's earliest era? How have individuals lived out these teachings, helped to reshape them, and discerned a spiritual life focused on God as known through Jesus Christ? As contemporary persons, how can we read and interrogate as well as appropriate these texts within a religious and cultural world so different from those of the authors? The continuing importance and vitality of these "classics" - or their rediscovery after long periods of obscurity - is part of the milieu for Christianity in its world context today. REL Foundations in Islam. 3 Credit Hours. Provides a basic survey of Islam for non-specialists. Includes a historical overview focusing on the relationship of Islam to the world and to other religions and ideologies of ancient, medieval, and modern times. Also considers the major modalities of Islam as a religion, including the legal, spiritual, philosophical, and social aspects. Finally, current issues in Islam will be considered, including modern changes in social organization and present-day politics. No prerequisites or language requirements. REL Foundations in African Religions. 3 Credit Hours. REL Religious History of the United States in the 20th Century. 3 Credit Hours. Explores the scholarly literature on the history of religion in the United States in the 20th century. Focuses on members of New Religious Movements; on Muslims, Protestants, and Catholics; on race and ethnicity; on diasporas; on gender; and on changing concepts of the nature of "religion." REL American Religious History. 3 Credit Hours. Discusses and analyzes a selected topic in American religious history. REL American Religious History II. 3 Credit Hours. Discusses and analyzes a selected topic in American religious history. REL The History of Ethics. 3 Credit Hours. A general survey of the development of human ethics in history. While all of the most prominent religions and civilizations will be looked at, the course may concentrate more on some than others in accord with the expertise of the instructor, including especially contemporary themes in the study and application of ethical standards. REL Interreligious Dialogue. 3 Credit Hours. Investigates the theoretical issues that underlie all interreligious dialogue as well as examples of actual dialogue in progress, the latter partly according to student interest in those dialogues. The former will include analyses of what precisely is meant by dialogue and of the philosophical, theological, religious, psychological, "spirituality," and "praxis" aspects of interreligious dialogue, in other words, the presuppositions and implications of such dialogue.

7 Religion, Ph.D. 7 REL Methodological Options in the Study of Religion. 3 Credit Hours. Focuses on one of the currently available methodologies used in academic discourses on religion, enabling the students to evaluate this methodology and compare and contrast it with others. REL The Body: East and West. 3 Credit Hours. This course assumes a comparative approach to investigate how we understand our body, how we live our body, and how our body changes through the practice of self-cultivation. It will first examine some of the traditional Western concepts of the body (e.g. Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, and Merleau- Ponty). Then it will turn to the study of the body as it has been articulated in the Eastern intellectual tradition (e.g. Samkhya Karika, Patanjali's Yogasutra, and Yuasa Yasuo's The Body, Self-Cultivation and Ki-Energy). REL Jung and the East. 3 Credit Hours. This comparative course delves into the similarities and differences between Jung's major theories developed after 1928 (e.g., archetypes, collective unconscious, synchronicity) and the representative Eastern theories of Taoist, Buddhist, and Kundalini Yoga traditions. REL Religious Experience: Body and Meditation. 3 Credit Hours. This course examines the nature, the variety, the depths, and the meanings of religious experiences with the view to advancing a third alternative position to the two prominent contemporary philosophical positions which W. T. Stace and Steven Katz offered on this topic. As a preparation for this task, the course will first review some of the major classical texts, both Western and Eastern (e.g., Plotinus, Pseudo-Dionysius, St. Teresa, St. John of the Cross, Meister Eckhart, Early Buddhism, Kundalini Yoga, and Shintoism), so that the student will become familiar with the scope and the depth of the subject. REL Rel Exper-East & West. 3 Credit Hours. REL Religion and Public Life. 3 Credit Hours. We will inquire about key intellectual issues pertaining to the public understanding of religion in the U.S. today: examining the ideas of secular and religious; understanding the first amendment clauses on religious freedom and establishment; tracking ethical debates concerning race, gender, and sexuality; gaining perspective on civil religion and popular culture; examining how religion uses and is portrayed in the media; and gaining insight about religious pluralism in local and global contexts. Additional goals include understanding the connections among world events, American society, and religious life. Students will do critical writing in a variety of styles to address public and academic audiences. REL Religion and Sexuality. 3 Credit Hours. This course examines recent ideas and trends in the scholarly literature about sexuality in the context of religious studies. We will focus primarily on how contemporary scholars have reshaped and rethought religious traditions that control and celebrate sexuality in light of contemporary ideas about the power and variety of sexual experience and expression. Students will be required to read and critically engage scholarly monographs and write an extensive original research paper on a topic of their choice.

8 8 Temple University Bulletin REL Topics in Buddhist Thought. 3 Credit Hours. Various topics in the Buddhist thought of Japan, China, or India. May treat one, two, or all three of these traditions on a given topic and also compare them with parallel Western thought. REL Chinese Philosophy and Religion. 3 Credit Hours. This course will introduce participants to a select few seminal works in the history of East Asian thought. These works will be read closely and in depth together with secondary scholarship on them. The primary readings will usually be from the pre-modern period and will focus on foundational works of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. REL Topics in Japanese Buddhism. 3 Credit Hours. Provides an in-depth study of one or more topics in Japanese Buddhism. May cover any of the major Japanese Buddhist thinkers such as Kukai, Dogen, Shinran, Myoe, Hakuin, Takuan, and Nishida. Methodological orientation is philosophical. REL Kyoto School of Philosophy. 3 Credit Hours. We will be reading for the course some of the major thinkers belonging to the Kyoto School, such as Nishida Keiji, Miki Kiyoshi, and Abe Masao. The thematic focus of the course falls on the understanding of the meaning of nothingness (both relative and absolute) from a philosophical as well as a depth-psychological viewpoint, while questioning the traditional formulation of ontology from an East Asian perspective. REL Topics in Biblical Studies. 3 Credit Hours. Research and discussion on a selected topic or topics in the biblical studies, including either the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, or both, as well as a consideration of the relationship of that literature to other writings, including the apocryphal and pseudepigraphic. REL Race, Gender, Class and Ethnicity in Ancient Near East. 3 Credit Hours. Against the background of the substantial work done in recent years in biblical racial and gender studies, this course explores the ancient Near Eastern, and specifically biblical, origins of diversity and religious nationalism in terms of race, gender, class, and ethnicity. The focus will be on how these apply to particular biblical texts that involve gender, ethnic, and class confrontations. REL Violence in Ancient Religion: Pagan, Christian, and Jewish, 50 CE-500 CE. 3 Credit Hours. Explores examples of coercion, violence, and war resulting primarily from religious motivations within the political framework of the Roman Empire. The rubrics of violence in the cause of freedom, violence due to intolerance, and violence in the cause of ideology will organize the work. The questions of how religious ideas serve the cause of power and how the victims respond in each religion will dominate the seminar. In addition, discovering whether racial or ethnic biases skewed perceptions and inspired conflicts will be important throughout. In order to do this, we must look at the new studies of contemporary scholars who explore definitions of self-identity in antiquity. Who is a "Jew," a "Greek," a "Roman," and a "barbarian"? Finally, analyzing the range of acts, from ignorant prejudice to violence sanctioned by the state through legislation, will aid in the task of situating the phenomena in antiquity within the context of contemporary theories on the problem.

9 Religion, Ph.D. 9 REL Holocaust and Representation. 3 Credit Hours. Building on works by Saul Friedlander, Sidra Ezrahi, James Young, and others, this course raises questions about what it means to represent and remember the Holocaust, focusing on issues of the aesthetic, memory, and the labor of representation. What do art, film, and literature enable in relation to legacies of communal destruction and trauma, and what do they foreclose? Other topics will include: the construction of historical narratives (whose stories? whose texts?), the art of fascism, nazi culture, and questions about the ongoing labor of memory, testimony, and artistic production. REL Women in Ancient Christianity. 3 Credit Hours. Explores the wide variety of women's participation in and experiences of early Christianity, from the first century to the fifth. Pays close attention to extent primary evidence and the varieties of ways that this body of evidence is used and interpreted in both theological and historical contexts. Hence the course will combine historical and hermeneutical issues in contemporary scholarship. REL Feminist and Womanist Biblical Interpretation. 3 Credit Hours. This seminar provides a survey of the history and development of feminist and womanist biblical interpretation in the United States. It includes interpreters of the Hebrew Bible (sometimes called Old Testament) and New Testament in religious and non-religious contexts. Knowledge of Hebrew or Greek is not required. REL Modern Catholicism. 3 Credit Hours. Focuses on reform movements within the Catholic Church from the 18th-century Enlightenment forward, concentrating particularly on the most recent times. These reform movements, climaxing in Vatican Council II ( ), constitute a Copernican turn in Catholic history and involve at least five dimensions: 1) the turn toward the historical, 2) the turn toward the world, 3) the turn toward freedom/democracy, 4) the turn toward reform, and 5) the turn toward dialogue. Key thinkers include De Chardin, Küng, Schillebeeckx, Haring, and Ruether. REL Women in Ancient Christianity. 3 Credit Hours. Focuses on the four main figures of Christian tradition in the West: Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, and Calvin. Includes reading of original texts in English translation. Also includes modern works by Troeltsch and Weber. REL Issues in Theology. 3 Credit Hours. Deals with one or more issues in modern and/or contemporary religious theology. REL Christology in the Ancient Church. 3 Credit Hours. Explores the emergent ambiguities with regard to the identity of Jesus Christ during the 2nd through the 4th centuries. In order to understand the common person's view of Christ, we shall read apocryphal acts, lives of saints, sayings of the desert mothers, sayings of the desert fathers, and martyrologies. In addition, we shall examine primary texts of authors known as the Fathers, such as Tertullian, Irenaeus of Lyon, Melito of Sardis, Origen, Eusebius, Basil of Caesarea, Macrina, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianus. One of the goals is to understand the debates and differences with the context of institutional monastic and ecclesiastical growth.

10 10 Temple University Bulletin REL Topics in Islamic History. 3 Credit Hours. Offers one of several topics in classical Muslim history, including the life of the Prophet Muhammad, the early development of the political system and Muslim law, Muslim theories of history, and selected trends in modern Muslim history. REL Islamic Jurisprudence. 3 Credit Hours. Examines the Muslim legal prescriptions regarding women and war, the two issues for which Islam is most attacked today both in academia and the media. It will consider both the classical law and recent developments. Special attention will be given to the question of flexibility versus rigidity in the law, as well as to the type of society envisioned by the proponents of different interpretations. Current trends and possible future outcomes will be considered. The changing status and role of the religious responsum or fatwa will be probed as well, leading to a discussion of the development of religious authority in Islam. REL Islamic Mysticism. 3 Credit Hours. Examines the sources, rise and development of Muslim spirituality. The ideal of life and worship in Islam will be studied as the framework for Muslim mysticism. Then the development of spiritual life and thought will be examined, and especially the contribution of noted individuals. Finally, Sufi orders and their role in the life of Muslim society will be considered. REL Islam in Global Perspective. 3 Credit Hours. This course focuses on contemporary Islam in a global context. It will consider the development of Islamic networks and the emergence of transnational identities among Muslims from places like Africa, Asia, Europe, and the United States. West African Muslim migrants among other groups will be examined for how they respond to the political, economic, and cultural processes of globalization. REL African American Islam. 3 Credit Hours. This graduate seminar is designed to introduce students to the growing scholarly literature on African American Islam. It will explore the intersection of race, religion, and ethnicity in light of the various ways African American Muslims negotiate their identities and religious practices. REL Topics in African Religions. 3 Credit Hours. Covers a selected topic or topics in the study of African religions, including aome or all of the following: African traditional religions, new African religions, and forms of Christianity and other major religions as practiced and elaborated by Africans. REL African Ideas of God. 3 Credit Hours. Introduces the conception of God in African traditional spirituality and the implications of such a "theology" on African understanding of humanity. Explores African creation myths, the names and attributes of God in African languages, what people expect from God, and what God expects from people. In doing this, we will address African ethics or the conception of good and evil among Africans. The relationship of African concepts of God with Islam and Christianity will also be discussed, including the beliefs of African practitioners of those religions.

11 Religion, Ph.D. 11 REL Religions of the African Diaspora. 3 Credit Hours. Looks at the historical development of African-derived or African-inspired religions in the African diaspora. Particular emphasis will be placed on Camdomble in Brazil, Vodou in Haiti, and Santeria in Cuba, as well as on communities practicing these and related religious traditions in the United States. REL Africana Philosophical Thought. 3 Credit Hours. Explores a variety of philosophical and metaphilosophical problems in recent African philosophy through an examination of the treatment of the concept of "invention" in the work of several influential philosophers and social theorists. REL Foucault in Africana Thought. 3 Credit Hours. Examines the two classic phases of Foucault's thought, archaeological and genealogical, and explores the impact they have had on the construction of race, gender, sexual orientation, disciplinarity, secularization, and politics as configured in Africana thought. Includes close readings of Foucault and his impact on the thought of Africana thinkers such as V. Y. Mudimbe, Cornel West, Molefi Asante, Sylvia Wynter, Paget Henry, Joy James, and B. Anthony Bogues. REL Special Topics in Religion. 3 Credit Hours. A series of special topics in the field of religion, including some of those taught by visiting faculty. Content will vary from semester to semester. Specifics will appear in department course description booklet each semester. REL Special Topics in Religion. 3 Credit Hours. A series of special topics in the field of religion, including some of those taught by visiting faculty. Content will vary from semester to semester. Specifics will appear in department course description booklet each semester. REL Teaching Practicum in Religion Studies. 3 Credit Hours. This course is for students who are beginning to teach religious studies in a university setting and wish to think about and develop their teaching skills. The course will help teachers in constructing the syllabus, conducting class discussions, designing lectures, getting the most out of student evaluations, using office hours effectively, creating teaching portfolios, working as a teaching assistant, grading, and problem solving around student interactions. The class will involve classroom visits and peer critiques, practical exercises and discussion about problems as they arise, so students should enroll during a semester when they are actually engaged in teaching. REL Individual Study. 1 Credit Hour. Individual study with a faculty member while in the coursework phase of the program. REL Individual Study. 3 Credit Hours. Individual study with a faculty member while in the coursework phase of the program.

12 12 Temple University Bulletin REL Individual Study. 3 Credit Hours. Individual study with a faculty member while in the coursework phase of the program. REL Preliminary Examination Preparation. 1 to 6 Credit Hour. This course fulfills the continuous enrollment requirement after coursework completion while preparing for the Preliminary examinations. REL Master's Thesis Research. 1 to 6 Credit Hour. Capstone MA course. Student explores a specific topic with his or her MA advisor and writes a thesis of approximately 50 pages. Registration each semester required until thesis approval. REL Pre-Dissertation Research. 1 to 6 Credit Hour. Pre-Dissertation Research. After having passed the Preliminary exams, registration is appropriate for students working on the dissertation proposal. REL Dissertation Research. 1 to 6 Credit Hour. Registration required each semester after elevation to candidacy until completion and successful defense of the dissertation. Student Attribute Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Student Attributes: Dissertation Writing Student.